Sunday, January 27, 2008

An awe-inspiring performance of The Who classicby a group of Seniors from the U.K. They'vebeen all over the net for awhile now but my memoryof them was jogged when I read that one of the filmsbeing pushed at the current Sundance Film Festivalis 'Young At Heart', which I mentioned here last June.American or British, these folks are a pleasure to watchand I only hope I can kick-start something similar whenI grow up ;-)

Saturday, January 19, 2008

From the Hindustan Times:'A mob of 70-80 men groped and molested two youngwomen for some 15 minutes on a busy main street inMumbai’s glamour district Juhu early on New Year’s Day.'LINK to full article

That piece of news got me ranting on the state ofaffairs in India, touted as the soon-to-be world'snext Economic Superpower.Simply put : if there's not enough room, you're goingto bump into something or someone. If the bumpingis between individuals, sooner or later it becomes anunwanted and unavoidable fact of life.It's when the'bump' turns into 'grind' that it becomes the unaccepted,that which must be dealt with on a personal level - viaconfrontation with the source of discomfort.

So it is in over-populated India, where overwhelmingopportunities reside for the teeming masses to bump intoeach other on a daily basis as they go about their business.The jostling for comfort and safety in overcrowdedtrains, buses and stations remains an ongoing fact of life.

Confrontation with sources of discomfort may take thesituation to levels of verbal abuse and violence and legalaction. However, confrontation often comes with thethreat of repercussion, in the form of stalking of victimsand their families and even murder. As an example of howconfrontation can escalate a problem, take a look atHouston, Texas USA where I currently reside. When drivingin New York City I freely honked at drivers and pedestriansto alert them to make way, along with the rest of thefrustrated million people wanting to travel through thestreets of the Big Apple. Same as in India, bumper-to-bumperand breathing down each other's necks, getting hot underthe collar and honking in frustration. In Texas however,where Gun Control has a whole different meaning, thesimple act of blowing one's horn at someone who is inyour way means you're almost certain of being physicallyconfronted or shot at. It's that simple. You blow your horn,you're asking to get shot. So we don't blast on our carhorns, rather we tap-not beeep-politely to get the other'sattention. Sadly the shooter often drives away withoutever being punished.

What does all this have to do with sexual harassmentin India ? What's my point ? The point is, the extrememeasures necessary to overcome the problem are simplynot in place. That's why the people have the need toform groups like Blank Noise and attempt to tackle theproblem themselves. It's the Wild West in its Asianincarnation, and it's only when there are enoughmartyrs for the cause that we can hope the situationmerits more action from the Indian Government.

In the meanwhile, Ladies - keep paving the way for yourchildren's children. Show them the way to take a standjust as the Suffragettes did a long time ago. We may notsee the change in our lifetime but it will come aboutas surely as Democracy did after India's Independence.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Apologies dear friends and readers, and manythanks for your patience and the returning visit !I shall be resuming the regular scheduled bloggingshortly. Lost my broadband connection and spentmy precious time instead of my precious money ongetting the problem solved. I got as far as the you arenow connected' message from my modemand then -no page would load in my browser.Turns out I wasusing the wrong power adapter forthe modem,that's all ! The Tech support guy leftwithout givingme a bill and that was the best thingto happen to mein the New Year....so far.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Margaret Deefholt'scolorfully related piece is anexcellent read and the accompanying video isa perfect testament to this rare and unusual sight thattakes place in Sivapur, - about an hour's drive frommy old hometown of Pune.

Say, are you mystified by mystical occurences and psychicphenomena like I am ? The weird experiment mentionedbelow is one that I can personally vouch for, having takenpart in it, in fact it takes place on a regular basis !If you are making plans to visit India I highly recommendmaking the trip to take part in something that can onlybe described as truly extraordinary. Something that falls'off the beaten path' of Tourist agendas. This link from anarticle by John DeckeratKeelynet.comentitled 'Gestalts and the Production of AnomalousPhenomena' mentions the Sufi shrine I visited during theSeventies in Shivapur, near Poona, India :

'It is named after Sufi holy man Qamar Ali. In the courtyard,visitors to the temple are asked to assist in a demonstrationof Qamar Ali's divine presence. The experiment involves twolarge boulders in the courtyard, one slightly larger than theother. When eleven people stood around the largest boulder*

and lightly touched it with a single forefinger (as I understandit, either hand could be used), they were instructed by adisciple of the temple, to chant in unison, the phrase,'Qamar Ali Dervish' in a kind of sing-song style. After acouple of minutes of this chanting, the stone would rise upoff the ground. If the chanting stopped or just one personremoved their finger from the stone, it would instantly fallto the ground. The smaller boulder could also be lifted insimilar fashion, yet it only required the participation ofnine people. On our recent trip to Egypt, I SO wanted togo to India to witness this phenomenon and do it for myself,making a videotape and taking measurements wherepossible, however, the cost was beyond my budget.Again, we have the combined willpower of a group ofpeople, expecting a specific goal to occur.'

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Are you looking to network socially but on aslightly more refined and mature level than MySpace,Facebook and their kin ? Then check out XING,which was the first web2.0 company to go public.These folk work hard and mingle equally hard all overthe globe, from Europe to Dubai to the USA.Photographic evidence like the Oktoberfest one abovemay be viewed on Flickr,but does not necessarilyrepresent the total scope of Their Mission :'XING is committed to powering relationships basedon trust for all professional people. Based on thetheory that “No two people are more than six degreesapart”, XING enables members to grow their trustednetwork by making their contacts’ contacts visibleto them.'

With XING you can:

• Find decision makers and experts fast• Open doors to thousands of companies• See your contacts' contacts • Market yourself in a professional context• Open up new sales channels • Find old student friends and former colleagues• Let other people find you• Manage and expand your network

I didn't expect much going into the deal and rightlyso since I don't come from a corporate situation now.However, the highly professional and helpful memberscertainly got my vote when they actually offeredfree advice on various topics related to their particularfield of expertise. Take the tourhere.

Stand-up Comedy legend Jackie Mason's still goingstrong after selling out Broadway and Las Vegas withhis raunchy no-holds barred sarcastic wit. But herehe is a bit more mellow as he reflects on what weshould really look for in the New Year...it's also alittle plug for his upcoming March 2008 Live showvia his YouTube page.